NSA Spying Software Hidden In Most Hard Drives

[wackyjacky]

(Reuters) - "The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/1 ... R320150216
That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.

Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said."

[walkjivefly]

Now that's a sneaky exploit. Fortunately not one most of us are likely to be targeted by for a while at least.

Taking issue with the thread title, they don't seem to be saying drives are shipping with the compromised firmware. Rather it's getting on to machines through the usual vectors. The anti-virus companies are probably working on detecting and preventing infection. I wonder how long until they add firmware scanning to their arsenal? That would require close cooperation with the drive and controller manufacturers.

Short term dodge (as usual): don't use Windoze or Mac.

It's probably only a matter of time until drives do ship with compromised firmware. At which point you'd better be using damn good software encryption if you want to keep stuff private. Anyone already using drives with built-in hardware encryption really ought to rethink that decision.

More worries for the tin-foil hat brigade!


OT but good avatar from the OP.

[General Mackevili]

I seem to recall reading/hearing about a Chinese company that was sending out hardware with eavesdropping stuff on it last year.... Maybe a well-known brand, I forget..

[wackyjacky]

I know the US gov won't buy Huawei or stuff w/certain Huawei parts inside. You might be thinking of them. Them & Xiaomi make some rocking phones though.

[frank lee bent]

yeah, lenovo was first- then huawei.
rumour has it that even electric kettles and toasters are chipped up to eavesdrop wifi.

[wackyjacky]

^^^^^^ I think Huawei was effectively banned in the West first back in the early 00s for stealing & selling Cisco's routers (everything down to misspellings in the manuals). Stealing everything from Nortel, putting them out of business, & trying to steal Motorola staff & stuff. The security factor is more recent. Lenovo & ZTE were banned as well. Finding any brand computer w/out Chinese components may be impossible. LINK: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/07/30 ... blacklist/

[StroppyChops]

Every time I fire up my Huawei range extender the bastard neighbors brute it and camp out on it. Doesn't happen with any of my other Wi-Fi equipment, all running the same protocols, and with non-broadcasting SSIDs.

[Duncan]

yeah, lenovo was first- then huawei.
rumour has it that even electric kettles and toasters are chipped up to eavesdrop wifi.

Yep,, even electric vibrators can have a spy camera inside them. Best to warn your girlfriends to go manual, digital has too many risks.

[Maladroit Drunkard]

I seem to recall reading/hearing about a Chinese company that was sending out hardware with eavesdropping stuff on it last year.... Maybe a well-known brand, I forget..

you mean they had android spyware installed on them?

[Barang chgout]

Oh no!
My secrets!
All my secrets!
I am in soooooo much shit now.
Lol.

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